Canada is a world leader in saying we need to promote more export and trade. Yet cutting back on overseas development agencies is like shooting ourselves in the foot, undermining the very foundations for economic growth to take place in reducing the capacity in the long term for workers abroad to consume and produce products, thereby contributing to the economic development.
More important, though, is the question of human justice and dignity. It's not only about economic development, and that's our argument. Millions upon millions of people suffer and die under the most horrible living conditions and neither Canada nor any other industrial nation can stand by and watch that happen. We see it ourselves in some of the work we do. Canadians historically have prided themselves in presenting a human face to the world by promoting equality and justice, and cutting back on ODA is putting forth a real ugly mask, we think.